Scarlet and gray might be the official colors of Columbus, but pink will be taking over tonight when “Legally Blonde The Musical” heads to the Palace Theatre through Sunday.
The show reimagines the popular movie “Legally Blonde” for the stage, bringing back Elle Woods with her Chihuahua, Bruiser, and handbag in tow. Only this time, the scenes from the movie are transformed into glitzy musical numbers.
As in the movie, audience members get to watch Elle conquer Harvard Law School, but the musical also expands the storylines of the rest of the cast. New scenes feature bigger roles for characters such as the “PMS girls,” Pilar, Margot and Sabrina, Elle’s ditzy Delta Nu sorority sisters. When Elle leaves California and heads to Harvard, her friends continue on in the show as members of a Greek chorus who can only be heard by Elle.
Elle’s friend from the nail salon, Paulette, also sees more stage time, including a full musical number called “Bend and Snap.” The number reinvents one of the movie’s most popular scenes, where Paulette receives a package from the UPS man she has a crush on and tries a pick-up move that Elle taught her.
Jillian Wallach, who plays Paulette in the musical, said the scene is her favorite and “lends itself brilliantly to being a song.”
The musical number is amplified by the spunky and fashionably questionable wardrobe Paulette wears. In the show, she has a total of nine costume changes, Wallach said.
“Paulette is not someone who comes from a lot of money, so her costumes are ridiculous,” Wallach said. “But you know, she makes them herself and she’s always fierce.”
The costumes color the mood of the show from start to finish.
“Elle’s costumes are all pink and beautiful until she goes to Harvard Law School … and she decides to blend in a little more,” Wallach said. “In Act Two you see her in a navy suit, and it just shows the audience that she’s trying to do everything she can to play the part.”
But in Legally Blonde fashion, the show ends in “a pink explosion,” when Elle decides to stay in law school and just be herself, Wallach said.
The closing scene features the whole cast in “Legally Blonde Remix,” which even breaks into an Irish dance, she said.
“I think that it’s just so much more fun, like you can actually see what these characters are going through on stage,” Wallach said, comparing the musical version to the movie. “The characters are dissected in a way that is not able to translate on film.”
“Legally Blonde The Musical” will show at 8 p.m. today through Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets range in price from $22.50 to $67.50, and student discounts are available.
